Load management has been a major topic of conversation in recent years in the Association. As a result, the NBA is making a big change in order to prevent stars from sitting too many games throughout the season. In a nutshell, the league can fine teams over $1 million if they violate the resting rules.

However, there are certain players who will be exempt from the new rule. Among them? LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and James Harden.

Via Bobby Marks of ESPN:

“The NBA will allow pre-approved designated back-to-back allowances for players who are 35 years old on opening night or have career workloads of 34,000 regular-season minutes or 1,000 regular-season and playoff games combined, sources said. If a team feels that a star player is unable to play in back-to-back games, it must provide to the NBA written information at least one week prior explaining why the player’s participation should be limited. The star players who fall under this category include Chris Paul, Mike Conley, Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, DeMar DeRozan and James Harden.”

So basically, these stars above can technically sit the second game of a back-to-back (or the first) if their respective organization submits the necessary paperwork to the league office at least a week before. This certainly makes sense considering the likes of KD, Steph, Bron, DeMar, and CP3 have a ton of mileage from all these years. Could they play back-to-backs? Absolutely. But for the sake of their longevity, it wouldn't be a surprise to see teams use this exemption to their advantage.

Also, the NBA said an organization can try to get approval for any star, not just the names mentioned, to sit either game of a back-to-back based on their previous injury history.